March 12, 2004

Polo Plays Alumni

All-time Cornell polo greats Taylor McLean ’03 and Melissa Riggs ’02 will make their return to their alma mater this weekend. However, they will not be cheering for the Red.

Instead, McLean and Riggs, who have earned a combined total of seven national championships in women’s polo while at Cornell, will be coming back as opponents as part of a very dangerous club team from Garrison.

“It should be a very tough game,” said Cornell coach David Eldredge ’81 about the tomorrow evening match-up between his women’s team and Garrison.

“I coached those players so they play very similar to what we do. It should be a very, very tough challenge.”

As their last regular season game, the Red will try to use the game to reach their peak performance level before heading into next week’s Regional tournament.

Eldredge stressed that the high quality play of their opponents is precisely what the Red needs right now.

“This is exactly the type of game we need heading into regionals,” explained the coach. “This should get us ready and sharp for next week.”

However, the importance of this game does not rest solely on its importance in getting Cornell ready for the title run. All the players

and coaches know that, with the return of McLean and Riggs, this match

has much more riding on it.

“Everybody really wants to win this game,” said Eldredge. “It should be

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